As Kelsey Stanton ‘15 walked off the pitch one last time for the Lyons Township Girls Soccer team, she knew that her JV team really did go above and beyond. They had shocked LT and the rest of Illinois by taking the state title.

“When [Coach Danny Savage] told us that the varsity team “actually seriously sucked” this year, I was told it would be up to the JV team to take their spot and replace the injured, impoverished and disease-stricken varsity squad,” teammate Alana Davidson ‘16 said.

The blame for the atrocious varsity team has been debated, but is largely put on the coaches for scouting players based on how “dope” their cleats were. Parents as well have been holding each other accountable for the poor season based off their alleged salmonella coated post-game cookie dough, considered to be sabotage.

One of the big twists of their journey in playoffs was the seemingly never-ending string of injuries that smacked the team including six torn ACLs, an eye that popped out after running into a goalpost and two players who went down due to hurt feelings.

“I swear, our team feels like Derrick Rose,” center defenseman Hannah Sanchez ‘15 said.

Despite countless setbacks, the immense roster helped in the team maintaining a steady head.

“The other teams were a little surprised when our big team, equal play technique actually worked against them,” Stanton said. “We subbed the whole line every five minutes in order to get the whole 34-woman squad on the field at least five times.”

The team miraculously managed to make it through the state playoff run by only scoring one goal over the eight games. Seven of the teams victories came in a penalty shootout where LT was only barely able to score by using the team photographer to momentarily blind the goalie with her flash camera.

“It’s been an incredible run,” Savage said. “I’d like to say that we should do it again next year, but that might call for a coaching change, so I’ll leave it at that.”